1998CruzMssl

iTrader: (2)

Well, after two weeks of my friend telling me I could use his car lift as soon as he was finished I said F*ck it and dit it in my garage. It really was not that bad at all, thanks to everybody here and their wealth of information which I owe a BIG thanks to everyone!!!!!! I actually removed the old headers and other junk by myself and insalled the drivers side header by myself also. I did have to cut the piece off the block for the that header to slide right in. My dad showed up for the passengers side and the ORY install. As on the drivers side, the passengers side when smooth as silk. BUT, as everyone else and their brother has warned, the ORY sucked ***!!!!!! That took most of the time out of everything. All in all, very clean install and pleased with the overall package. It sounds mean with the cutout and not too bad through my flowmaster which I plan on changing out with either the hooker or magnaflow catback. Again, I want to thank everyone here for all the articles and help, without that the install would have been a nightmare.

THANKS GUYS!!!!

HavATampa

iTrader: (49)

Way to go. Glad to hear it went smooth. What did you use to get the car high enough off the ground? I will be doing headers in a month or so.

1998CruzMssl

iTrader: (2)

I had 8 jack stands....if you can get 6 ton jack stands because they are able to reach the height you will need. I used to floor jacks with 4 pieces of 2x4 on each side. I would use two then place a jackstand and do the same thing to the other side, back and forth until I used the forth 2x4. The drivers side didnt need to be that high at all but the passengers side needed to be quite higher. Just make sure that you use all the jackstands for safety purposes, cant stress that enough. It looked quite scary as high as the car was but I made sure that it wasnt going anywhere. Hope everything goes well for your install. Just take your time and you should be ok.

2000Z28M6

iTrader: (13)

Congrats on the install.

qane

1998CruzMssl:

My friend and I started installing mine this weekend. We ran out of time tonight so we stopped after attempting to get the passenger side in and failing with the car pretty high up in the air (i thought so anyway). I'm not looking forward to jacking it up 3 feet off the friggin ground. I'm using 3ton jackstands and jack as well. Using 2x4's would scare me but if that's what it takes, I guess I will. We had the stands supporting the rear on the lowest setting. Would you recommend that height for the rear? Or will we have to go higher? The front being that much higher than the rear scares me since the jackstands in the back will be contacting the vehicle at a strong angle and in my mind the car would just slide back. I'm a little paranoid about these things though

Very frequent breaks to calm the nerves.

tomaSS

iTrader: (1)

I just installed mine this weekend. They fit great and no clearance issues, just had to grind the extra casting piece off the block. I used two 4"x4" s with a jack across the K-member to get the car high enough for the passenger side. Used ramps for the rear. I did not have to deal with the y-pipe since I am going with duals. Congratulations on your install! I am sure is was just as gratifying for you as it was for me.

etnsfdny

are the pacesetter headers ceramic coated all the way around or just on the outside?

HavATampa

iTrader: (49)

Yeah, I hate the idea of being under a car on jack stands, especially if I'm having to use wood to get it higher. Thanks for the info. I have a pair of 3 ton and a pair of 6 ton jack stands along with a set of ramps and 2 hydraulic jacks. Might go get me another pair of 6 ton stands just to add to the safety comfort. Hopefully I won't need the 2x4's. The 6 ton stands have a height of 25".

1998CruzMssl

iTrader: (2)

To be honest, I tried using ramps in the back and jacking the front up and that proved to be a pain. I just jacked the front up and when I got it the height I wanted I supported the rear with jackstands (not actually jacking the rear up at all). Worked out pretty good. Good luck and let us know how it went...

fasthwks

iTrader: (3)

congrats, I just did mine and was not as hard as what I thought. Once my duals are on I know it will all be worth it. Congrats again!

Pontiac Nut

iTrader: (1)

I used suv jacks with to 6x6 screwed together to make a base for the jacks to sit on. Be very careful when jacking the car up, as the car will move forward or backward and the jackstands will start to tip. Little increments at a time, front, back, front, back and so on. Instead of cutting my block, I dropped the crossmember and with a pry bar moved the rear of the tranny to the passenger side. This gave me a enough clearance to slide the header in. Hope my experiences are helpful.

Jeremiah

hourang

iTrader: (6)

i just jacked the rear up, put the ramps on there, jacked the front up as high as i could and put the 3ton stands on the front subframes. i didnt have any trouble getting the pass. side header in. drivers side i had to grind the tab off the block, lot easier to use a sawsaw on it though. good idea on the crossmember thing jeremiah.

99-LS1-SS

Did your drivers side header hit the k-member?

hourang

iTrader: (6)

on the install? or after? its not even close to hitting. the ypipe is hitting my torq arm though, it was fine until i got a new torq arm mount. now it hits, gotta get that fixed now

1998CruzMssl

iTrader: (2)

fortunately for me everything cleared perfectly...except I did have to cut the piece off the block but that took 30 seconds with a sawzall

qane

She's done! Well almost, it's 11:00 and my bedtime is 10:00 on weekdays so we said F*CK the y-pipe for now.

First start up: ...

We all about nutted ourselves. Inside my little 1.5 car garage hearing it roar to life through open headers. Car doesn't pull for ****, but I assume that's due to the richness caused by the o2's being overly exposed and the computer being generally confused as sh*t due to the removal of both EGR and AIR as well. Just gotta have my bud at Neal Tire make me an adapter pipe to mate the 3" y-pipe to my stock exhaust. Hopefully then it will run a bit smoother. It only died on me once when I was cruising down the road. Never died at idle or slow speed.

We did run into one problem in that the back header bolt on the driver's side cross-threaded on us. It caused heated debate but we couldn't conclude how or who. Oh well, sh*t happens. Doesn't leak so I'm not concerned for the immediate time being.

Thanks all for the help and advice!

1998CruzMssl

iTrader: (2)

Congrats.....glad everything went pretty smooth. I too was worried about crossthreading a bolt but I used anti-seize and was very careful not to do that. The only thing is my torque wrench does not read 18/ft lbs so I had to "feel" when tightened them down. I am trying to find one small enough to get in there so that when I check them in a week or so I can do it properly. Good luck with that Y pipe too!!!!!

ninobrn99

iTrader: (8)

I have a few questions for u guys. I also plan on installing these headers and !egr adn !air. After bolting the headers in. what is then done? Im trying to figure out what else needs to be connected. How many bungs are there, how many o2 sensors and where do they go..do i need the o2 simms? any help is appreciated. Thanks and congrats on the install!

1998CruzMssl

iTrader: (2)

I went with the ORY so I only needed to use two O2 sensors which bolt into the collectors. You will also need the extensions for your O2 sensors. If you have a catted Y then i would assume you will need O2 sims after the CATS. Hope this helps you out...any more questions feel free to ask.

ninobrn99

iTrader: (8)

cool thanks alot!!